"On wickets that do a bit he’s bang average" - Former South African opener on Zak Crawley amidst India vs England Tests

Former South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs has claimed that England opener Zak Crawley is an average batter who struggles on pitches that have a bit of seam movement available for the bowlers.

In 2022, there seemed to be immense pressure on Crawley's spot in the England Test side due to a lack of good performances. However, the faith shown by head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes helped the opener turn his fortunes around under the 'Bazball' ideology.

An England fan took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his emotions on being proven wrong by Zak Crawley's turnaround in form. However, Herschelle Gibbs disagreed with the fan, and here's what he commented under the post:

"On wickets that do a bit he’s (Crawley) bang average mate.. actually defends balls that are missing 5th stump."

Another fan joined the debate and spoke about the Test centuries Crawley has hit in the past few months. But Gibbs felt the conditions weren't as challenging:

"3 of those countries you get no seam movement,everything gun barrel straight but your assessment will be better seeing you’ve seen more of him than I have ."

Gibbs got flak from several fans in the comments section, especially because of how good Crawley has looked so far on the tour of India.

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Zak Crawley looked by far England's best batter in Visakhapatnam

While England lost the second Test against India at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs, Zak Crawley's form of late will give them great confidence going ahead in the series.

The opener got scores of 76 and 73 and looked the most comfortable, not just against the quality of the Indian spinners but also against the world-class Jasprit Bumrah.

His controversial DRS dismissal in the second innings was one of the big talking points after the game. Cricket pundits like AB de Villiers believe that Crawley could have made a difference to the eventual result had he batted longer.